During a visit to Washington D.C. last week, Chaudhary Amir Hussain, the speaker of Pakistan’s National Assembly [lower house of parliament], told a group of Pakistani journalists that the proceedings of Pakistan’s National Assembly and Senate will soon be telecast live in Pakistan. Mr. Hussain commented that the project is financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in collaboration with the American television network C-Span.
Hussain was in the U.S. capital after attending a conference in Mexico. During his stay in D.C., he met with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Christina Rocca and visited the Library of Congress. He was also scheduled to meet officials of the C-Span network.
Hussain reported that Pakistan will soon establish standing parliamentary committees, patterned after the U.S. Congress. According to him, both the government and opposition members would have equal representation on these committees. The committees would scrutinize the performance of different government ministries and departments. He hoped that the establishment of the committees and the live telecasting of the parliamentary proceedings would help promote democracy in Pakistan.
In a separate meeting with the Washington Policy Analysis Group, a group of Pakistani intellectuals based in Washington D.C., Hussain observed that the Pakistani newspapers were under the influence of Western media. For instance, he said, Pakistani newspapers prominently published news that appeared in The Washington Post. “Whenever the Post discusses any issue negatively concerning Pakistan and is reprinted in the mainstream Pakistani press, it provokes concern in Pakistan.” This tendency, he felt, interferes with positive developments in that part of the world.
Replying to a question regarding President Pervez Musharraf’s stepping down as the country’s Army Chief of Staff, Speaker Hussain said he was on a foreign visit and could not comment on it at this moment.
Hussain asked the Pakistani American community to give importance to their country of origin. “No matter how rich you may become away from Pakistan or if you become citizens of other countries, you will always remain a second-class citizen there.” He said Pakistani Americans must invest in their homeland. “Even though law and order in Pakistan is not very good at the moment, it is sufficiently stable to offer plenty of investment opportunities for Pakistanis.”
According to Hussain, the Pakistani government makes no tall claims like Pakistan’s former military ruler, General Ziaul Haq, who lured Pakistani doctors to practice back home but failed to integrate them there. The present Pakistani government would make every effort to help Pakistani Americans who want to invest in their home country. He asked the expatriates to invest in their home country in the spirit of nationalism. He also advised the Pakistani journalists based in the United States to be careful when reporting about Pakistan and to try and build up their country’s image.
Commenting about the strength of the Indian lobby in the U.S. Congress in comparison to Pakistan’s, Hussain surmised one reason for this was that majority of Pakistanis are Muslims and thus the target of an unrelenting negative propaganda campaign. He also pointed out that the Indian community had displayed greater cohesion. “They invest their money and resources collectively to achieve their goals. Therefore, we also need to be more united both at home in Pakistan and abroad.”
In response to a question about his decision to quit the Pakistan Muslim League and join its other faction – the Muslim League (Q-Quaid-e-Azam) – Hussain commented on the weakness of Q-Quaid-e-Azam by pointing to its former leader, Nawaz Sharif, who fled the country without even consulting his party leaders. (The former Pakistani prime minister is living in exile in Saudi Arabia, under a deal brokered by the Saudi royal family following the bloodless coup by General Pervez Musharraf on October 12, 1999.) Hussain sees his present party [Pakistan Muslim League] as more democratic and open than the one previously led by Nawaz Sharif.
Commenting on his job as Speaker, Hussain said he is in a difficult position; because of his affiliation with the ruling party, members of the opposing party accuse him of bias. However, as custodian of the House, he stated, he gives more floor time to the opposition parties, arguing that when the opposition gets the opportunity to vent its grievances against the government, it does not resort to street agitation, thus not aggravating the political situation
Referring to the opposition parties’ frequent walkouts from the Pakistani lower house of parliament, Hussain said it was a way for them to maintain their credentials as a force opposing the government; expressing opposition is also very much a part of the democratic process. For Hussain, the greatest problem facing the Pakistani political parties – besides the Kashmir issue – is the lack of consensus on national issues.
